Thanks to Mark Alleyne and Jack Russell, who ground out 138 in 71 overs, Gloucestershire had something to bowl at yesterday after being reduced to 35 for 4. Four-day cricket was meant to produce gritty, no-quarter-asked-or-given contests, so no one can complain about what has been delivered here on a pitch becoming slower and lower and showing occasional signs of wear and tear. "I really thought I could chip into the hole for a birdie and suddenly I didn't have a shot at all I did well to make bogey and I lost my momentum. Now I think I will need a couple of 67s to catch Annika, she will be tough to beat from that position.''Sorenstam had five birdies for a three below 137 to forge three ahead of the American trio Jane Geddes (69), Brandy Burton (70) and Emily Klein (69).Scores, Sporting Digest, page 27. She was allowed to replace the ball and, after having done so, it rolled into the hole created by the stick."That was a bad break,'' she said.

She added: "We kept moving and that's the way the game should be played.''Davies sank three birdie putts of between 10 and 20 feet to launch her charge which was halted at the sixth where her ball finished against an occupied shooting stick. She played the remaining 14 holes in one over par and only kept a tenuous touch on a fourth Grand Slam title thanks to a 15-foot birdie on the 18th.''That was much more enjoyable,'' said Davies, who was still irritated at being put out in the final groups on Thursday at the demand of American television. Davies took her anger out on the pine needles course with four birdies in a 68 for a two over par 142, but she could not match the 67 of Sweden's Annika Sorenstam and goes into the final 36 holes trailing by five shots in her quest for a second successive major championship. But the scowls of the first day turned to smiles even though she failed to take full advantage of a superb start which yielded three birdies in the first four holes. Laura Davies needed 50 minutes less to trim six shots off her opening effort in the second round of the US Women's Open Championship here yesterday. Pollock offered just one chance, a stumping on 57 to David Ripley off Rob Bailey, before raising his bat high and handsome to acknowledge a century of which his father, Peter, another South African Test player, will be equally proud.. Moles lost the night-watchman Keith Piper, leg- before, playing back to Curtly Ambrose, and Trevor Penney was taken low at slip, providing Andy Roberts, the leg-spinner, with his first Championship wicket for two years. Roberts, the TCCB Second XI Cricketer of 1995 when taking 73 wickets and scoring 791 runs, earned his latest opportunity through the decision of the chief coach, John Emburey, to step down from the game.The other wickets fell to Paul Taylor, who bowled Dou- gie Brown with a ball which the batsman did not appear to see, and to Ambrose when Pollock's back-foot defence was penetrated.

Pollock proceeded to move beyond his career best of 74 not out while Moles was at times becalmed, but all in the cause of staying in. He managed only 15 runs in the hour after lunch and spent another hour over the final 20 to complete a Championship century exactly a year to the week since his previous one, against Somerset.He remains among the elite minority of non-Test players this century with a career average in excess of 40 His sturdy stride beyond 150 had an air of inevitability. Pollock joined Moles at 118 for 5, with the follow-on a remote possibility. Over the past two years, Moles has overcome a broken arm, appendicitis, an Achilles tendon injury and strained ankle ligaments, this latest problem ruling him out for a month leading in to last week.It was Moles' 27th century and his first against Northamptonshire, who endured an arid day when taking four wickets. Pollock's century, from 172 balls with eight fours, followed a staunch hundred, from 241 balls, from Andy Moles. Their partnership of 194 in 62 overs was 26 runs short of the 58-year-old record for Warwickshire's sixth wicket. Moles, batting with the young South African for the first time in a Championship match, merged a personal triumph with his team's collective success. Having bombarded them with repeated short-pitched deliveries the previous day, he blasted their bowlers with a maiden first-class hundred before Warwickshire established a first-innings lead.